Sunday, 1 February 2015

TUSC AND GREECE!
The Greek election has very real meaning for TUSC. So too has the massive growth of Podemos in Spain - witness the 100,000 strong demo in Madrid the other day!

These events shout loud and
clear that austerity is not the only show in town.

PASOK, the Greek equivalent of the UK Labour Party, has been obliterated. Not because it was too left-wing; just the opposite.

PASOK, like One Nation Labour, caved in to the intimidation (and the temptations) of big business and finance.

It had no political programme that would transform the economy and society in the interests of working people. It endlessly repeated the worn-out mantra that there is no alternative; we must obey the orders of the Euro bankers and the financial elites.

But the Syriza election has shown there is an alternative; that we do not have to bend our knee to the oligarchs.

Of course Syriza must now deliver on its promises. In doing so it will face the implacable hostility of the corporate media and the super-rich, with their loyal stooges amongst the senior ranks of the Greek state, and their craven servants in the fascist "Golden Dawn".

The Syriza government will face the blackmail of big money, which will threaten further measures to evacuate capital from Greece and withhold investment and lending, etc.

They will test Syriza's mettle.

Syriza may have to call on further support and commitment from working people if it is to prevent the forces of capital from stealing their victory - and they will surely try!

Syriza's leadership may have to act sooner rather than later in making sure the major capitalists and financiers are not able to sabotage their work.

They may have to repudiate the loans burdening the Greek economy - loans that were not taken by the workers of Greece, but who nonetheless are being asked to pay them.

Syriza may soon have to nationalise the banks and the main levers of the economy so that the true wealth of Greece, its people, can be put back to work again, to rebuild what the opulent idle have wrecked.

The nationalised core of the economy could then be planned, democratically, by the organised workers and communities - in the interests of the vast majority of Greeks - who need schools, hospitals, roads, food!